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Artist Ron Walotsky, born 1943, died last night, about midnight, July 29, 2002, in Florida, of kidney failure. He had been hospitalized since late June, a week after returning from a trip to Africa.
Walotsky painted hundreds of cover paintings for books and magazines, and was especially associated with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, for which he did over 50 covers from 1967 through 2002 (most recently in May, with another coming in December). A collection of his work, Inner Visions: The Art of Ron Walotsky, was published in 2000 by Paper Tiger. An obituary in Thursday's Daytona Beach News-Journal notes that a showing of Walotsky's work is planned for Friday, 5-9 p.m., at the Zone Gallery in Holly Hill. A complete obituary will appear in a future issue of Locus Magazine. Biographical information and a wide range of art samples are available on the artist's official website:

§Kathleen M. Massie-Ferch, 47, died July 15, 2002, in Madison, Wisconsin, of breast cancer. She edited two DAW anthologies with Martin H. Greenberg, Ancient Enchantresses (1995) and Warrior Enchantresses (1996), and published a dozen or so stories in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine and various anthologies. Her webpage includes lists of her works and a biography.

§Robert Randolph Medcalf, Jr., 52, died July 3, 2002, at his home in Biglerville, Pennsylvania. He published poetry and occasional stories beginning in 1976, many in Eldritch Tales and Space & Time. He founded Quixsilver Press in 1981 and in early 2002 founded online magazine Science Fiction Poetry Review, which includes a Publisher's Page about him. He published a poem in Strange Horizons in March.

§Donald Franson, born 1916, died June 5, 2002, of heart failure, according to a report on SF Site. He was coauthor with Howard DeVore of A History of the Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Awards (1978), and served several terms as president of the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F).

§William L. Pierce, 68, died July 23, 2002, in West Virginia. He was an ex-rocket scientist, white supremacist, and author of The Turner Diaries (1978), a novel about a group of neo-Nazis who violently overthrow the US government, which was credited by Timothy J. McVeigh as inspiring the Oklahoma City bombing.

§David Gemmell won this year's Prix Tour Eiffel for best SF/fantasy novel, for Légende [Legend, 1984], in a ceremony in Paris on 14 June. The award, sponsored by the Société Nouvelle d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, the company that maintains and operates the Eiffel Tower, includes a cash prize of 15,000 euros (= $16,000). Winners alternate each year between novels by Francophone authors, and translations from other languages. The photo shows David Gemmell receiving his check from Jacqueline Nebout, president of the Eiffel Tower company. The announcement on the Eiffel website is here in French, or translated by Google into English.

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Greg Egan's "Reasons To Be Cheerful" and Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" have tied for Best Translated Short Story in the 33rd Seiun Awards, the Japanese equivalent of the Hugos. Results were announced at U-Con, the 41st Annual Japanese SF Convention, on July 14, and will be re-presented at a ceremony at ConJose, this year's World Science Fiction Convention.

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The first Sir Julius Vogel Awards, for excellence in science fiction, fantasy and horror by New Zealanders, were presented last month during the national sf convention held in Wellington, NZ. Winners included Dale Elvy's novel First Hunter, Peter Friend's short story "The Good Earth", and dramatic presentation (long) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

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Winners of this year's Prism Awards, science fiction and fantasy romance novels, include Julie Moffett's Across a Moonswept Moor as "Best of the Best", and works by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, P.C. Cast, Susan Squires, and Kathleen Kane in other categories.

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Terry Pratchett has been named winner of the Carnegie Medal, a prestigious UK book prize for best children's book, for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, a humorous young adult novel set in his "Discworld" universe. The news was widely covered in the British press over the weekend, all stories noting the irony that this is Pratchett's first mainstream literary award despite his status as one of Britain's bestselling authors, with over 27 million in sales. The award includes a cash prize of £5,000, and has been previously won by Philip Pullman, Peter Dickinson, Richard Adams, and C.S. Lewis, among others. (Pratchett's only genre award of note is a 1990 British Science Fiction Association Award for early Discworld novel Pyramids.)

According to the BBC report, Pratchett said "I'm totally delighted and genuinely shocked," adding that he would have bet £1,000 that he would not win. "I'm especially pleased because Maurice isn't just fantasy but funny fantasy, too. It's nice to see humour taken seriously."

During his acceptance speech at the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards at the British Library, Pratchett took swipes at fellow fantasy writers Tolkien and Rowling, according to The Independent: "Fantasy is more than wizards. For instance, this book is about rats that are intelligent. But it is also about the even more fantastic idea that humans are capable of intelligence as well. Fantasy isn't just about wizards and silly wands. It's about seeing the world from new directions." Both The Independent and The Guardian report further remarks from Pratchett about global politics, and the difficulty fantasy writers have in receiving recognition, especially from "high-minded librarians, editors and teachers, especially in the US, [who have] patronised and disparaged his work."

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Organizers of the James White Award, a competition open to short stories by non-professional writers, have announced that this year's judges will be Orson Scott Card, Michael Carroll, Christopher Fowler, Graham Joyce and David Pringle. Closing date for this year's award is August 20, and the award ceremony will take place at Novacon 32 in November.

§Laurence M. Janifer, born 1933 as Larry Mark Harris, died Wednesday morning July 10, a week or two after being admitted to hospital with congestive heart failure. He was co-author with Randall Garrett of humorous SF novel "That Sweet Little Old Lady" (as Mark Phillips), a 1959 Astounding serial and 1960 Hugo nominee, published in book form as Brain Twister in 1962; as well as numerous other stories in Astounding (later Analog) from the late 1950s until January 2001. He was more recently noted for a series about interplanetary troubleshooter "Knave", including Survivor (1977), Knave in Hand (1979), and Knave and the Game (1987). His homepage is at http://soiuser.hyperchat.com/oudis/homepage.html.

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Finalists for this year's Spectrum Awards, which honor works in science fiction, fantasy and horror that deal positively with gay characters, themes and issues, include novels by David Gerrold, Jacqueline Carey, Candas Jane Dorsey, and others, as well as nominations in short fiction and "other work" categories. Winners will be announced during this year's World SF Convention, ConJose, held August 29 - September 2.

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Much noted in the past few days is news about a "Harry Potter" rip-off published in China, called Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon, apparently written and published in response to the delay in J.K. Rowling's completion of the actual fifth volume of the Harry Potter series...

A new magazine, Bookmarks, will debut this September; it's designed for "media-savvy Gen-Xers who haven't really read a book since college but are eager to reconnect with literature, though uncertain how to do it," according to the LA Times report. The preview issue [not yet seen] includes "Sci-Fi author Connie Willlis's favorite science fiction stories".

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Independent and used-book dealers are upset over a new policy at abebooks.com to charge a 5% commission fee on every book sold from a listing on their sites (in addition to the monthly listing fees); here's a conversation...

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The Eighth Annual PARSEC/Confluence Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Contest is now open to non-professional writers (those who have not met eligibility requirements for SFWA or equivalent). Judges are Charles Oberndorf, Mary Soon Lee, and Prof. Philip E. Smith. Deadline is February 1, 2003; send entries to Timons Esaias, Confluence Short Story Contest, 6659 Woodwell Street, Pittsburgh PA 15217-1320. For questions or clarifications only, send email to Esaias@compuserve.com.

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The 2002 Locus Awards were presented Friday evening, July 5, at Westercon in Los Angeles. The awards are given to winners in Locus Magazine's annual poll. Complete Locus Poll results will appear in the August issue of the magazine.

Toastmaster at the awards banquet was Connie Willis. Only Willis, Jacqueline Carey, and Tor publisher Tom Doherty were on hand to accept their awards. In addition to the Locus Award plaques for the winners, certificates were given out to publishers of winning books and stories.

SF NOVEL

Passage, Connie Willis (Bantam)

FANTASY NOVEL

American Gods, Neil Gaiman (Morrow)

FIRST NOVEL

Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey (Tor)

NOVELLA

"The Finder", Ursula K. Le Guin (Tales from Earthsea, Harcourt)

NOVELETTE

"Hell Is the Absence of God", Ted Chiang (Starlight 3, Tor)

SHORT STORY

"The Bones of the Earth", Ursula K. Le Guin (Tales from Earthsea, Harcourt)

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Jack Williamson's Terraforming Earth and Robert Charles Wilson's The Chronoliths (both Tor) tied for this year's John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2001, while Andy Duncan's "The Chief Designer" (published in Asimov's, June 2001) won the Theodore Sturgeon Award for the best short SF of the year.

The awards were presented Friday evening, July 5, at the University of Kansas, according to James Gunn, director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. At the same event, Donald A. Wollheim, James Blish, Samuel R. Delany, and Michael Moorcock were inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (as previously announced).

Williamson, who is 94, was unable to be present but sent a message of appreciation, saying that the award was particularly welcome because Terraforming Earth would be his final novel. Wilson was present to accept his award, as was Duncan.

Third place in the Campbell competition was Nancy Kress's Probability Sun (also Tor). Runners-up in the Sturgeon competition were remarkable for both being published in the same issue of the same magazine as the winner: "Lobsters" by Charles Stross placed second, and "Undone" by James Patrick Kelly placed third.

The Sturgeon Award stories are nominated by a committee of some two-dozen reviewers and editors chaired by Christopher McKitterick, with the winners chosen by Frederik Pohl, James Gunn, and Kij Johnson, with the assistance of Andros Sturgeon, from a group of about a dozen finalists. The Campbell Award novels are nominated by publishers and the winners selected by a committee of seven academics and authors chaired by Gunn and consisting of Gregory Benford, Paul A. Carter, Elizabeth Anne Hull, McKitterick, Pamela Sargent, T.A. Shippey, and Brian Stableford.

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Webzine scifidimensions, edited by John C. Snider, has announced the creation of the Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement (SESFA) Awards, to be given annually for achievement in science fiction, fantasy, or horror, to persons born or living in the Southeastern United States. Nominations opened July 1st for the 2002 awards, which include Best Novel and Best Short Fiction of 2001, as well as a Hall of Fame Award for lifetime achievement in any field related to the genre. A $7 membership fee for voting participation will help fund the prize money and presentation plaques. For further details, including a partial list of eligible writers, see: